Sukkot absorbs
several different but intrinsically related meanings derived from the
terms used to describe the holiday in the Torah and later writings.
Sukkot is known by several names, each hints to another way of
looking at the holiday.

Sukkot is the last
in the cycle of pilgrimage festivals.
Passover and Shavuot are the other two.
When the ancient Holy Temple stood, Jews gathered in Jerusalem for
special sacrifices and ceremonies to mark the day.
Each of the three festivals, known collectively as the Shalosh
Regalim, the three on foot (a reference to the mode of transport used by
the pilgrims), has historical and agricultural components.
Sukkot refers to the holiday’s
historical basis, Chag
Ha’Asif, the Holiday of Gathering emphasizes its agricultural roots.
The third name, Z’man Simchateinu,
signals the overflowing happiness of the holiday.

“So that your
generations may know that I made the Children of Israel dwell in booths
when I brought them out of the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 23:43)

The Mishna, the
collection of Jewish laws and traditions compiled about 200 C.E.,
preserves Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Eliezer’s different interpretations of
this verse. Rabbi Akiva
understood the booths as actual shelters built by the Children of Israel.
Rabbi Eliezer argued that the sukkot actually referred to the
clouds of glory that surrounded the newborn nation, protecting them from
desert dangers. (T.B. Sukkot
11b)

Sukkot celebrates
the powerful response God had to the Children of Israel’s faith.
They followed God out into the burning hot, frightfully cold desert
certain that God would watch over them.
In doing so, this band of newly freed slaves laid the foundation of
faith through hard times an example Jews have clung to throughout their
tumultuous history.

Chag
Ha’Asif – The Holiday of Gathering
“After the
ingathering from your threshing floor and vat, you shall hold the Feast of
Booths for seven days. You shall hold festival to the Lord you God seven
days, in the place the Lord will choose; for the Lord your God will bless
all your crops and all your undertakings, and you shall have nothing but
joy.” (Deuteronomy 16:13,15)

“Also in the
fifteenth of the seventh month when you have gathered in the labors out of
the field you shall keep a feast to the Lord.” (Leviticus 23:39)

During the busy
harvest season, farmers would build temporary shelters in the fields to
save themselves the trouble of heading back home for rest.
They also did this to act as human scarecrows as their presence
would help keep thieves at bay. The
sukkah is reminiscent of these harvest huts.
Modern scholars have argued for the validity of the sukkah’s
agricultural roots because the leafy covering stipulated in sukkah
construction codes are more similar to huts farmers would build than to
the heftier huts nomads would need.

Is an agricultural
custom relevant today?

No matter how
diligently a farmer plants, pulls weeds, and fertilizes, the harvest –
plentiful or pitiful – is in God’s hands.
Most modern workers are far removed from the toil of the soil, but
the lesson of the Chag Ha’asif remains.
A family of farmers who had spent long days working in the field
could gaze upon their neatly bound sheaves of wheat and credit their
success to their own hard work, but Chag Ha’asif reminds them to thank
God for their bounty. Workers,
who had spent long days in meetings and writing reports, could gaze at
their paycheck and credit their success to their own hard work, but Chag
Ha’asif reminds them to thank God for their bounty.
Recognizing God’s place at the center in the wheel of fortune
keeps egos in check during the good times and keeps despair in its place
during hard times.

Zman
Simchateinu
Rosh Hashannah and
Yom Kippur wipe the slate clean for the new year.
Celebrating Sukkot ensures that
the first mark on this tabula
rasa is an etch of joy to put the new year on the right course.

One of the giants
of Kabbalah Issac Luria (16th century) instructed his disciples that the
cultivation of joy is one of the prerequisites for attaining mystical
illumination. Having gone through the necessary ten days of teshuva
(return) from Rosh HaShanna through Yom Kippur we are ready to begin our
engagement with the new year. That engagement can only take place with joy
as one of its elements, the joy of Sukkot sets our bearings on the right
course.

Hallel
- Prayer of Praise
Reflecting the
unadulterated spiritual joy on tap during this holiday, the full Hallel,
prayer of praise recited during morning services, is said each day of
Sukkot. In contrast, for most
of Passover’s seven days an abridged Hallel is recited.

Mazor Guide for Sukkot brings you much more about the
holiday, its meaning and its traditions... See the links below.